Air bags for motor vehicles are known which are composed of rubberized fabrics. For instance, one such type of air bag is the so-called steering wheel air bag and another is the so-called rider's air bag. In the current art, air bags for motor vehicles have generally been made from rubberized polyamide fabrics.
The rubberizing is necessary because of the permeability of the polyamide fabric to air, and only the rubberizing of the fabric enables the air bag to perform properly when inflated.
In order to enable these rubberized polyamide air bags, which are folded up very compactly, to remain operative for many years and to enable them to unfold without difficultly when they are called upon to function, it is necessary to have the inner rubberized surface of the air bag powdered with talcum powder. This talcum powder keeps the adjacent interleaved rubberized surfaces from sticking to one another over the course of time.
However, experiments have shown that when the air bag unfolds explosively when it is called upon to perform, this talcum powder, as well as fine particles from the rubber and from the gas mixture blown into the air bag at the moment of use, are driven through the partly permeable rubberized coating and through the fabric. This particulate matter can penetrate into the eyes and breathing passages of the passengers, obviously with adverse effects.
Other difficulties having to do with the rubberized treatment are: sticking of adjacent layers; loss of impermeability and strength on prolonged storage; microorganism attack; and adverse interactions of the rubber ingredients with metals, with polyurethane foam, and plastics. Such rubberized fabrics are also undesirably heavy.